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Re: Anyone had any luck with "retr0bright"?
Has anyone found a TAED containing household substance? The
retrobright site shows the original "Merlin" reciple using a UK
product called Vanish OxiAction Multi, but the other recipes seem to
depict the regular Oxi type laundry products we have in the US. Not
sure what's up with this.
Coming from another angle, what do you all think of this approach?
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The ANALYTICAL ENGINE
Newsletter of the Computer History Association of California
ISSN 1071-6351
Volume 2, Number 1, July 1994
Kip Crosby, Managing Editor
Jude Thilman, Telecommunications Editor
<< snip >>
ONE FROM THE EDITORS: HELP FIGHT PLASTIC ROT
Small computers and terminals of the 1970s and early 1980s
typically have hard plastic cases, gray to gray-beige in color.
Over a period of years this plastic has often turned a garish
yellow-brown and become very brittle. This has happened to a
lot
of Hewlett-Packard computers -- including our own HP 86 and HP
125 -- but Karen Lewis at HP Archives says it also appears on
many Apple II's and III's.
Protecting the computer case from UV light will arrest this
degradation, but we're interested in reversing it! We've asked
several authorities and, so far, only learned that xylene-based
copier cleaner will restore the original appearance of the
plastic surface. But xylene is nasty to electronic components
and painted finishes, it's quite toxic, and something tells us
this isn't a permanent repair anyway.
To the best of our knowledge, this is a minor epidemic and will
have much worse effects in ten to twenty years if not explored
now. If any ENGINE reader has pertinent background in the
chemistry of plastics, we -- and quite a few others in the
curators' and restorers' community -- will be grateful for
advice.
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